We can argue over the mechanical rate, and lament that whatever it is, the major labels will negotiate it downward, but one thing’s for sure, in the future acts will own their records.

The traditional deal was we find you, we pay you a bunch of money, and we own everything. Is this fair? Maybe if the record stiffs, but certainly not if it’s successful. The act pays for the album yet the label owns it? In what alternative universe does this make sense?

In the world of major label accounting. Which is also undergoing a transformation. Because of transparency. If there’s no pressing, no manufacturing, and you just get a statement from your digital distributor, where do you perpetrate the fraud? That’s how labels make their money, via fraud. They sell a certain amount of product and pay you..? Which is why powerful lawyers and managers extract such huge advances, because they don’t trust the royalty system. But these big advances have brought EMI to its knees. For if the album is a failure, or doesn’t meet expectations, the money guaranteed is out of whack. EMI wants a more equitable deal. And part of this deal will involve the act owning its masters.

Oh, that’s not the driving factor, the huge advances, but the transparency is key. Today recording contracts are no longer a mystery. Even fans, business experts after Napster, know that the act pays for the record yet doesn’t own it. Light has been shed on this heinous practice. And therefore, it won’t be able to exist.

You write a book, you own it.

Direct a movie and you don’t own it. Because the film is so damn expensive, there’s such a risk involved.

Recording is no longer that expensive, it certainly doesn’t have to be. Sure, if you’re a superstar and want to spend a million dollars, be my guest. Then again, where are you going to sell all this product, in a world where no one goes diamond not because of piracy, but the inability to reach the masses combined with infinite choice?

Recording costs are coming down. In many cases close to zero. Which in this case, is under 50k. Hell, let’s just say under 25k. And if you can’t lay your hands on 25k, you don’t deserve to be a successful artist. Go to your parents, go to your friends, your fan base, work on the road, your day job, if you can’t figure out a way to buy the computer equipment required to make a record, and pay for basic tracks in a big room, you don’t have the passion or desire to make it.

That’s what records are made on now, computers. And I don’t want to argue with engineers what is required for ultimate sound (interestingly, to be heard as MP3s via earbuds). It’s just that everybody is making records for less money. The label wants you to record vocals in a home studio. So, if costs keep going down, what is the rationale for the label to own the record?

The rationale used to be that you couldn’t do it on your own, couldn’t make it on your own. You needed the label to be a bank. But now you can record on your own, and the label can’t do much for you. Can’t get you on television or on the radio. Why should you give up ownership? The business proposition just ain’t that good!

Oh, if you’re the new Alicia Keys or Whitney Houston, a high concept act requiring money and time to expose and break you, the label is going to extract concessions, you can’t do it without them. But if you’re a band and your tracks are on MySpace (which Universal won’t allow), and you’re playing club gigs, why take almost no money and give up everything to an entity that just can’t do much for you? Other than take you to lunch and bill you for the privilege?

360 deals? Where is it written that the labels will be all powerful in the future? I just don’t see it. They’re desperate. They want to recoup income. Who says acts have to give it to them? And each act is an individual entity, negotiating on its own. There’s no WGA forcing everybody to agree. You can’t keep acts in line.

Which brings us back to mechanicals. If you own your own master, and you’re the label and you’re gaining all the revenue, who gives a shit what the mechanical rate is? Oh, if you get a cover you care, but do you write the kind of material that’s going to be covered? But what about your publisher, and his big advance? Well, do you need that publisher? And, once again, if you own the label…

But publishers advance monies based on airplay, based on hits. Are there going to be hits in the future? Let’s put it this way, will it be a hit-driven business? Shit, the Eagles sold triple platinum, and the success of "Long Road Out Of Eden" had almost nothing to do with hits. There was airplay on one song. But, a brand name and visibility and a cheap price. The Eagles didn’t need the major label system.

And neither did Radiohead.

The new Radiohead wouldn’t break on MTV. Utterly impossible. So what does the new Radiohead need to make a heinous deal with a major label for? Look to the U.K., where majors license product, for a brief period of time, just to feed the pipeline… That’s more representative of the future than the all powerful label of the 1980s or 1990s.

I’m not saying songwriters shouldn’t fight to get paid more. I’m just saying that the big label is no longer the bogeyman. The big labels are fighting ridiculous battles that don’t matter. If you’re a developing act you want your complete song on MySpace, and you want file-trading. If you’re not on the radio, how in the hell else are people going to discover you? You want to give now to get later. You don’t want people to have to pay a lot to get in on your scene, you want to develop.

The desires of the acts and the major labels no longer square, they’re at odds. The label wants to pay little for an incredible upside, which it owns lock, stock and barrel. The acts used to have no choice. Now they do.

Will there be labels in the future? Sure. But they won’t look like and won’t have the same names as the big four companies today. Because the new labels will be about building acts and maximizing revenue in all areas of exploitation. They’ll be about transparency. They’ll be run by geeks as opposed to mini-mafiosi. There will be a level of trust between performer and businessman. All things today’s majors abhor, which will contribute to their marginalization.

Don’t give up ownership of your records anymore. You don’t have to. Whether you license for a brief term or get the masters back at a certain sales level or both…this is now a negotiable point, just tell the labels you’re going to go indie… They’ll no longer laugh. They need you. They know indie can now deliver. They’ll negotiate.

Don’t go to the Website, don’t watch the trailer, stop reading this right now and get your ass to the THEATRE!

The producer has been hounding me for six weeks to see this flick. I can’t say that I wasn’t interested, but I was traveling, it was complicated.

Then I started to get e-mail. Like the one at the bottom, from Dan Navarro. Then I was interested. Then I wanted to see the movie. THE EARLIER THE BETTER! Because when you feel the buzz, feel the excitement, have that sense of anticipation, NO TIME IS TOO SOON!

So I drove out to Burbank, to 3ality’s compound. I worried the theatre might be too small, that I needed to experience the flick with a full house. But from the opening credits, I was HOOKED!

I don’t give a shit if you like U2 or not, you owe it to yourself to check this movie out. Because this is the closest thing to the live experience other than being there. Hell, I’d rather pay ten bucks to see this movie than sit in the upper deck in the soccer stadium the gig takes place in. And I’d like to tell you it’s about being so close to Bono, being within touching distance of the band, but more important it’s about feeling a part of something, of rock and roll. My absolute favorite moments were when they situated us at the back of the pit, with those in front of us thrusting their hands in the air. I felt the pulse, the sweat, the vibe, the MUSIC!

Remember when music wasn’t sold out? When it was its own rarified element, not part of sporting events? That’s what this show/movie is like. You feel like you’re with your brethren, and that the rest of the world just does not matter.

And you learn about economics. When you see the nearly hundred thousand hold up their mobile phones…shit, you add up the dollars! And believe me, U2 is making beaucoup bucks here, but I’d almost be too frightened to take the stage. This is one big mob, can they really be controlled?

Bono turns out to be a pipsqueak. Rather than larger than life, he’s completely human. And this makes you like him more.

Adam Clayton is cool.

Larry Mullen, Jr. is a star. Because his drums are in 3D. You feel like you’re hovering over the kit, it’s a master class.

And Edge is the magical element that makes the show work. A stadium full of people, with only three musicians. Filling up the space.

And the show leans towards the later material, but when they play the classics! You remember Red Rocks with "Sunday Bloody Sunday", but the absolute killer is "Pride (In The Name Of Love)". I thrust my arm in the air and sang along even though Felice and I were the only people in the theatre!

They didn’t play "I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For". And as the lights came up, frustrated, I wanted to discuss the set list with the assembled multitude, talk about the old shows, the shows yet to come.

I’ve seen no better concert than "Achtung Baby" indoors, at the Sports Arena back in ’92. Zoo TV outside was cool, but indoors, it was a living Disneyland. This show is different, the scale is larger. But one marvels nonetheless. My mind didn’t wander an iota, I was positively MESMERIZED!

Sure, I was a bit worried about the producer taking time away from his family on a Saturday night. I understand the game, of mutual strokes. But when the lights came up, all I could say was FANFUCKINGTASTIC!

I cannot hype this movie enough. This is not Andy Warhol’s 3D, you positively feel like you’re there. Is this the future of rock and roll shows? I don’t know, but even if this is "In Rainbows", a one time stunt, don’t let it pass you by. The only place you can see it is at your local theatre. Make the trip. You’ll tell every living soul about it. You won’t come down for days. It’s just like going to the show, in some ways even BETTER!

Dan Navarro:

Hey man —

I saw U23D on Sunday at the Bridge’s IMAX theatre. I had heard from a neighbor that the movie was good and my 11 year old wanted to see it. But man I did not expect what I saw at the Bridge IMAX. The film, the concert, the effects, the spectacle, all were nothing short of mindblowing. It’s a totally immersive experience that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I’ve done like 1500 shows in the past 20 years, so a concert is hardly what it used to be for me, and I still got chills. I mean, it felt like I was fucking IN U2, not just watching them.

The IMAX and 3D formats are ultimately gimmicks, and they’re as much the stars of the show as the band is. This ain’t no Michael Jackson Captain EO. It’s the first concert movie I’ve seen that made me feel both the hugeness of the sea of humanity at a stadium show, and the immediacy of being soooooo close to the action. The 3D is sensational — no red/blue glasses that make it so hard to settle into a 3D visual for very long, but rather some kind of polarized lens number that made the effect get natural pretty quick.

Bono is in your FACE. The Edge is in your face, Adam Clayton, well, yeah, like I said, in your bloody FACE! You circle all around Larry Mullen, then above him and behind, and you’re smack in the middle of it all, then, whoosh, you’re in the audience, then back, then out on the thrust stages, then back staring down Bono again. Man, it’s busy, but you stay with it, while your perspective never rests. The images are huge, and you feel like you could touch them. You practically can.

Musically it’s hard to say if the band is at the top of their form or simply playing out their well honed technique. And with so many songs to choose from, they were bound to leave out a couple of seminal tunes — no I Will Follow, no Bad, No Mysterious Ways, but they sounded great, played great and moved a fuckuva lotta of air for a band that’s been recording for nearly 30 years. And they moved me too.

You gotta check it out if you haven’t seen it yet. I’d love to know what you think.

For once, the game was the star.  Not the ads, not the music, but the game.  Bob Costas says sports are a metaphor for life, today’s Super Bowl evidenced this.  With all the drama, all the heartbreak and a goddamn correction factor.

Have you followed the Formula One scandal?  I’ll leave the details out other than to say one team got another’s manual, and the cheating team was penalized 100 MILLION DOLLARS!  AND, they were banned from winning the team championship.  Imagine if the Patriots had been fined $100 million for cheating.  And weren’t able to go to the Super Bowl.  There’d be no cheating in football FOREVER!  But we live in a country of pussy penalties, everyone must be given multiple chances, because otherwise the ECONOMY might suffer!  It’s all about the money…

And I don’t want to say today’s game had nothing to do with bread, but I felt a righting of the solar system, a giant correction factor.  Reverse the curse?  After Bill Clinton lied, the truth was for losers.  Mr. Smith got kicked out of not only Washington, but the courtroom, everywhere in America.  We live in a nation of lying, cheating scumbags.  Especially those with power.  There’s no honor, just spacious houses and expensive automobiles.  Did you believe it when Belichick bitched about the Giants having twelve men on the field?  They had to go to the tape, where they found that although the twelfth guy was in the air, running off the field, technically he was in-bounds when the Patriots snapped the ball.  This was unsportsmanlike conduct on Belichick’s part.  But, FINALLY, that old axiom held true…  CHEATERS NEVER PROSPER!  The Patriots lost.  Couldn’t happen to a more smug crew.  I can’t say that I love the Giants, not since Y.A. Tittle and Ally Sherman, but I think you play the game with all you’ve got, you don’t fight for an illegal edge, and if you happen to lose, well NOBODY ALWAYS WINS!

But the Patriots did, for eighteen games.  And we had to hear about it constantly, how they were the best team ever.  Putting the ’72 Dolphins to shame.  But we won’t hear that story anymore, not since they LOST!

So Tom Petty’s appearance has been forgotten.  Except for the management and concert promoter.  Which put tickets on sale in conjunction with his appearance.  They call that synergy.  People are high-fiving each other on private jets as we speak.  But does Tom Petty belong at the Super Bowl?  Do you think Tom Petty was a guy who played varsity ball in high school?  Did you live through the sixties?  People like Petty were outcasts, not BMOCs, never mind athletic heroes.

But marketing triumphs.  Soul is irrelevant.  Who could turn down such an OPPORTUNITY!  Can ANYBODY say no anymore?  I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but if I was President, and infidelity was my issue, I would keep my dick in my pants during my term.  I’ve got that much self-control.  But today everybody feels entitled to their heart’s desire, INSTANTLY!  NOW!

Maybe no more, now that Eli Manning, the less popular, less talented brother, the homebody, has beaten the playboy with the model girlfriend, who fathered a child out of wedlock.  It’s all right to be a square, to be honest.  Don’t let television tell you otherwise.

And most of the commercials were pretty stupid.

But we wanted to see Petty.

Isn’t Petty a bit old for this crowd?  Certainly the idiots who were allowed to storm the field?

Now I’m gonna give the band big props.  At least they played live.  And they were very good.  But did they belong HERE?

"American Girl" is a classic.  But not a beer-drinking, raise hell anthem.  It’s something more introspective.  Petty appeals more to your head than your balls.  It fell flat.

"I Won’t Back Down" was appropriate.  Certainly in light of the Giants’ performance.

But the one true winner was "Free Fallin’".  It was inappropriate, too slow for such a raucous event.  But being a classic song, the audience stayed with the band, they sang along.  It was magical.  As magical as Prince?  I won’t dignify that question with an answer.

The final number, "Runnin’ Down A Dream", made one wonder why it was billed as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, since three of the four numbers were from Tom’s solo record "Full Moon Fever".  But Mike Campbell killed.

Which way do you want to have it?  Do you want me to say Tom sucked, so you can throw rocks, tell me what an idiot I am?  Or that he was FANTASTIC!  And there’s no bigger star in America, and you should log on to TicketMaster to buy ducats right now!

You know neither of the above are true.  Tom and the band acquitted themselves, but it was like an episode of "Beauty & the Geek".  A mismatch, that in this case, wasn’t even that entertaining.

Football was never cool.  But music was.  Music was that sound that Harry Chapin heard in his head as he drove his taxi.  He could be a star in his own mind, even though his life was positively second-rate, at least economically.  Music is the elixir of life, it gets you through.  I’ll be high on this Super Bowl victory till…TUESDAY?  Shit, I’ve already come a long way down.  But I still tingle when I think of seeing Petty at the Whisky back in ’77.

So I’m gonna break down, go ahead and give it to you.

We’re running on fumes.  Established acts can’t sell records, and they’re doing whatever they can to generate megadollars on the road.  And if you say anything negative, the naysayers will just trot out the grosses.  As if money EVER triumphed over art.

I’d go to a Tom Petty show any day rather than go to the Super Bowl.  Even in the back row, I’d feel something, that touched my soul.  I’d say there would be less commercialism than at the game, but now even that’s not true.  Sponsorship runs rampant.

I’d say the lunatics have taken over the asylum, but Syd Barrett is dead.  The capitalists have taken over the music world.  Not that artists shouldn’t be paid.  But, despite Gene Simmons’ protestations, we always thought the acts and the music were more than that.  Maybe they will be again.  When the custodians are squeezed out, and a new generation of players come in.

Do you remember the Christmas Club?  That’s where you opened an account at the bank, and deposited fifty cents, maybe even a dollar or five, each week, so you’d have enough money for Christmas presents at the end of the year.  So you wouldn’t find yourself peering into store windows BROKE!

Soon we’re gonna need Concert Clubs.  Savings accounts for concerts.  I mean who can afford to go more than once a year?

Not many, that’s why we’ve got to put the ducats on sale LIGHT YEARS before the show takes place.

Imagine this…  Buying a ticket to the new "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" movie next week.  Worse, going on TicketMaster to acquire it.  You want to see it this summer, don’t you?  You know what you’re doing the Friday night it opens…  Ah, what night DOES it open?  Memorial Day?  July 4th?  What if I get invited to the lake house?  What about my "Raiders" tickets!!

Used to be that concert tickets were not much more expensive than movie tickets.  Now, they’re a monthly car payment.  Instead of live music being a regular habit, it’s like going on vacation, a once a year event, that you look forward to that doesn’t always deliver.  Wouldn’t it be better to go to multiple shows, and get immersed in the live experience?

OF COURSE NOT!  BECAUSE I NEED MY FUCKING MONEY!

LiveNation, AEG, the agents and promoters are going to make concertgoing such an exclusive privilege that the only ones able to go are themselves.  The regular public is not only being priced out, they’re being insulted.  And with fewer great acts to see, and the people with the bread wanting to be up close and personal, who the fuck is going to go anymore?

It’s not only Celine Dion, putting her shows on sale over a YEAR in advance.  Springsteen sold next summer’s shows before winter had technically started.  Now, in today’s "New York Times", there’s an advertisement for James Taylor’s Tanglewood shows IN JULY!

Now that’s July 4th weekend.  And people tend to plan ahead for it, if not THIS far ahead.  But the truth here is that JT and his posse want their MONEY!  They want to block out all competing events.  They want to get your bread before you blow it on dinner or a dress.  Before some other crusty act decides to tour this summer, or a new act arrives and steals JT’s thunder.

They’re gonna put that money in the bank and reap all that interest income.  At the same time they’re raping the customer for ticket service charges.  They’re laughing, but the customer isn’t.  The customer has got other entertainment options.  And when the dinosaurs die off…THEN WHAT?  And, the dinosaurs don’t sell out like they used to.  Everybody’s seen ’em.  And been raped financially in the process.

We need an edict.  That you can’t put tickets on sale more than two months out.  Certainly not more than three.  Otherwise, why not sell tickets for 2015?  Who cares if Eddie Van Halen falls off the wagon.  We’ve got everybody’s MONEY!

You wonder why LiveNation’s stock tanked?  Someone finally ran the numbers, and noticed that there are no superstars in the pipeline.  Not that those running LiveNation really care, they plan to sell the operation and cash out anyway, they’re not in it for the long term.

Is anybody in it for the long term?  Does anybody care about the fan?  Is money the only thing that matters?  Are we going to take every dollar from the table before everybody else in order to insure that WE’RE rich?

Don’t tell me everybody’s fine with it.  They’re not.  TicketMaster is as hated as the major labels.  As stated above, concertgoing is no longer a casual event, but planned way in advance, like going to college.  Amazing that in the name of greed, no one’s looking to the future.